David Headley testifies before Mumbai court through video conferencing

Share This

Tags

In the first deposition on a terror act from foreign soil, Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley on Monday told a court here via video-link that Pakistani terrorists attempted to attack Mumbai twice before the 26/11 strikes that killed 166 people but failed both times

In his deposition which began at 7 AM, Headley said that he was a “true follower of LeT” and came to India eight times–seven before the terror attack on November 26, 2008 and once after that

Headley, who was made an approver in the 26/11 case, said that his main contact in LeT was Sajid Mir, also an accused in the case

He told the court that LeT made two unsuccessful attempts to carry out terror attacks before finally striking in November 2008, once in September and another in October

Headley said that he joined LeT after being “influenced” by its head Hafeez Saeed and took his first “course” with them in 2002 at Muzaffarabad

Headley, who is currently serving 35 years prison sentence in the US for his role in the terror attacks, also said he changed his name from Dawood Gilani to David Headley in 2006 so that he could enter India and set up some business.

“I applied for change in name on February 5, 2006 in Philadelphia. I changed my name to David Headley to get a new passport under that name. I wanted a new passport so that I could enter India with an American identity.

“After I got a new passport I disclosed it to my colleagues in LeT of which one of them was Sajid Mir, the person with whom I was dealing with. The objective for coming to India was to set up an office/business so that I can live in India. Before the first visit, Sajid Mir gave me instructions to make a general video of Mumbai,” Headley told the court here.

Headley also said that in his Indian visa application he had furnished all “wrong” information “to protect his cover”.